Five Minutes
by xXNaruMayoiXx
Summary: "He wants to be able to not worry. He truly does. But when it was her life at stake, he had to." Ikarishipping oneshot.


NaruMayoi owns nothing.

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><p>Five Minutes<p>

-x-

Five minutes.

That was all it took.

-x-

00:05:00

-x-

It was just the two of them.

Nobody else.

No nurses running around frantically or beeps of the many machines hooked up to her.

Just them.

He looks at her, pure grief evident in his handsome face, marring his features.

There's a small rap on the door. He doesn't bother to open it.

-x-

00:04:43

-x-

It's well past midnight, but Paul doesn't care.

He puts his hand over hers, marvelling at how peaceful she looked.

His thumb rubs her hand in a circular motion out of habit. Dawn would always relax when he did that for some reason.

The realization makes reality hurt even more.

He hears the steady _beep beep _of the machines that are the only thing holding Dawn to this world.

His back aches from sitting in one position for so long. The doctors all give him sympathetic looks, shaking their heads when they read her prognosis chart. Paul doesn't give a shit about what the professionals said about her.

What was that silly little catchphrase Dawn used to utter?

No need to worry.

He wants to be able to not worry. He truly does.

But when it was her life at stake, he has to.

-x-

00:04:21

-x-

Dawn was always so fixated on her appearance.

Paul didn't understand why. When he asked her, the blunette only smiled, waggling a finger at his face like he was a misbehaving child and said, "It's a girl thing."

Even now, she looked so beautiful. Like a slumbering angel.

The moonlight bathes her ivory skin, making her radiant and glowing. Her eyelids covers deep azure eyes he could lose himself in, her hands resting by her side.

He almost forgets about the cast on her leg and her collapsed lung. He almost forgets about the internal bleeding and the tubes that were doing her breathing for her. He almost forgets about all the bloody scrapes that flawed her skin and the deep cuts from where the metal shrapnel had pierced it. For a moment, he almost forgets about reality.

He loses himself in a dream world for a few brief seconds. A dream world where none of this happened. Where there were no such things as moronic inebriated drivers who didn't give a shit about anyone but themselves. He wished that he could be there, instead of at a hospital, wondering whether or not the love of his life was going to live.

It's the sound of the machines that bring him back.

_Beep. Beep._

The weight of everything's too much to carry. He's only a teenager. He had been taught not to show his emotions, for those who showed emotion were weak and useless. Right now, he didn't care.

He let his face show all the internal turmoil he was suffering.

His friends are surprised at the show of emotion.

Drew says something in a low voice to all her friends. Paul doesn't bother to pay attention. He's only concerned about one thing. When he looks up, his friends are gone. He's alone.

Maybe that was for the better.

Paul breathes out, squeezing Dawn's hand in a reassuring manner, hoping for even the smallest sign of a response. A squeeze back, even a twitch.

He's rewarded with nothing.

_Beep. Beep._

-x-

00:03:58

-x-

He can't take the silence anymore.

It was like a necklace of rope around his neck. With each second that ticked by, the invisible man tightened the noose around his neck.

The breath is forced out of him.

He looks at her face. There's a scrape on her cheek from where the side of the door had rammed into her. It doesn't look right.

He stands up, closing the large window next to her. He noticed the goosebumps on her skin. Pulling up her covers so she'd stay warmer, Paul sat down. He leaned forward, a thumb stroking the palm of her hand.

"Y..you know... you mean a lot to me..." he began. Arceus, he felt like such an idiot.

He wants to say more. He really does. But no words could describe how he was feeling at that moment.

It was like a hurricane of pure emotion that raged on.

Anger. Anger at that fucking drunk driver that crashed into her. Anger at himself for not being able to save her.

Fear. He fears for her. He's scared of what fate had planned for her. She looks so broken yet beautiful lying there. Paul's more scared than he ever had been before.

Grief. Paul doesn't know what he would do without her. When they were dating, he couldn't imagine a future without her in there somehow. He didn't care that it was cliché, or cheesy. It was true. It wasn't just some stupid one night stand. To him, it was _love. _He just doesn't know what he'd do without her.

There are others, too. Bitterness, spite, pain, shock. They're all there.

But most of all, he feels helpless.

Helpless. He couldn't ever recall a moment when he felt truly helpless. Even in the most dire situations, he'd found a way to keep a clear head and make smart decisions. But not now.

He has no other choice but to wait it out and see what would happen. But he didn't like it. Paul had always liked being in control of a situation. But he isn't in control now. Nobody is.

All he can do now is wait and hope that Dawn still has the strength left to fight the invisible demons that were trying to take her for themselves.

-x-

00:03:19

-x-

"Dawn's mother's frantic right now." Gary says in a low voice.

Paul looks at him with dull eyes.

"Any mother would be when their daughter's lying in a hospital bed." he says darkly.

Gary doesn't say anything, only giving a brusque nod of agreement as a response.

Nobody says anything else.

For once, Ash is quiet.

Drew's hand is holding May's, the brunette staring silently at her friend.

Misty is leaning against the counter, her cerulean gaze fixed on the linoleum floor. There are tears at the corner of her eyes.

Leaf is breathing heavily, her arms wrapped around Gary's in a silent sob.

Zoey's just standing there. It's so strange to see her friend like this. It renders her silent.

Kenny's blinking. Just blinking. No word escapes his lips.

All of them are waiting.

Waiting.

That's just all it is.

A waiting game.

-x-

00:02:41

-x-

"Her vitals don't look too good." the doctor says.

All of the people in the room lift their heads to look at him, clinging onto his every word.

"That's shit." Paul says.

Everyone looks at him. There's sympathy in the doctor's cool grey eyes. Paul meets his gaze with a challenge.

"She'll pull through." Paul says firmly.

He knows his friends are pitying him at that moment. It's clear in their eyes.

"Young man..." the doctor begins.

"Don't young man me." he snapped, his dark gaze furious. "She _will_ pull through. She's stronger than you think, so shut your trap."

"Very well." the doctor says, his expression unreadable. "It is quite obvious to me that you are still quite traumatized by her accident. I will explain later when you have calmed down."

"Paul..." Ash began, but was promptly silenced by another glare from the boy.

It was clear that nothing was going to get through to him.

They don't try anymore, either.

Dawn's friends all look at her one last time in a silent goodbye, before closing the door behind them.

This was his moment.

Nobody was going to take that away from him.

-x-

00:00:19

-x-

The steady beeps of the machines become like a lullaby to Paul. He finds himself drifting in and out of sleep occasionally, only then becoming truly aware of his exhaustion.

He feels a slight pressure on his hand.

His eyelids flash open, his gaze fixed on the broken figure of the blunette in front of him.

No... no.

Dare he hope?

He feels it again. It's a squeeze, no doubt. He stands up to call a doctor, but there's a force that pushes him back down.

Shivers go down his spine when Dawn's eyelids flutter open.

Those deep, beautiful blue eyes of hers... he thought he'd never see them again. He hates himself now, for ever doubting that she couldn't pull through.

"Dawn." all the emotion he's feeling at that moment can be heard with with that one, short uttered word. "I..I'll get a doctor. Just... don't go..."

"No." she whispers. She pulls on his hand in a desperate attempt to stop him, a small groan escaping her lips at the effort.

He stops immediately, sitting back down.

"W-what?" he demands.

"D-don't go... it's useless, anyway." she said weakly, a smile never leaving her pale lips.

"What are you talking about, woman?" Paul utters in disbelief. "Wasn't it you who always said 'no need to worry!'? What happened to that Dawn? Well, you know what, I'm taking your advice. There's no fucking need to worry, Troublesome."

"I ne-never thought I'd see you be such an o-optimist..." she chuckles, squeezing his hand once more.

"Why the _hell _are you so troublesome?" he snaps, but he doesn't mean it. He knows that Dawn knows, too.

"'cause that's my name." she laughs breathlessly, before her eyelids flicker again.

"Dawn. Troublesome. Whatever the fuck you want. You are not leaving me. You are not going to fucking leave all your friends and family. You'll pull through, okay, and you know wh-"

"I love you."

Paul's momentarily stunned.

They'd been dating for years. But there was never an 'I love you' spoken with so much raw emotion. It breaks him down inside. His expression remains unchanged, for her sake.

"No. Troublesome. Arceus damn it, Troublesome!" he says in a voice not much higher than a whisper. Dawn gives a small, weak smile.

Her eyelids flutter again, closing once more.

They don't open again.

"No. Troublesome. Troublesome. DAMN IT, TROUBLESOME!" he shouts. The nurses look at each other, before frantically running for a doctor.

-x-

0:00:01

-x-

Paul's heart splits into two.

All the walls he spent so long making came crumbling down as he stared lifelessly at the unmoving shape of his girlfriend.

His hand never leaves her, and he has to suppress the tears threatening to fall as the warmth fades from her delicate hands.

This couldn't be happening.

"Dawn..." he whispers.

The tears start to fall this time.

"Dawn..."

-x-

0:00:00

-x-

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep._

_-x-_

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><p><strong>AN: **Damn that was hard to write.

So, the idea for this fanfic... I don't know where it came from. -shot- One of my friends that's also a Fanfic writer challenged me to write an angst fic. I never really got around to it until my foster cat got adopted. Then I just felt so depressed and sad that I channeled all my sorrows into this. ^_^; I still miss the troublemaker, but you know, she's happy now, and she can go wreak havoc to another household.

I have no idea how good this fanfic is. LOL. I really should be updating my other Ikarishipping fanfics, but to be honest, I haven't even started on the next chapter. -shot- I'm still not used to school, but tomorrow I'll try to type out half of at least ONE chapter, since I have a Pro-D then. Pro-D= no school. BAHA. So, um... yeah. I also have a whole bunch of new ideas for fanfics- one's an Ace Attorney Klema five-shot, one is an ORS/IS/PS/CS fanfic, the other's a Pokespe one. And another's a kind of drabble series. So mainly, I'm kind of dabbling in... six fics right now. I'm sorry. I get way in over my head. If any of you want to know what the plots are, you can just PM me. idk.

I've never written angst before, so please, review? (`'ω'´)

-NaruMayoi


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